Epoxides are highly reactive chemical compounds which, as a result of their reactivity, can be used in a wide variety of applications. Unfortunately, due to the reactivity of epoxides, they are often difficult to prepare with high selectivity and in high yields. Ethylene is the only olefin which has been successfully oxidized employing molecular oxygen on a commercial scale to produce an epoxide.
Preferred catalysts employed for the oxidation of ethylene to produce ethylene oxide comprise silver on solid supports. When such catalysts are employed for the oxidation of olefins having longer chain lengths than ethylene, no epoxides are obtained, but instead various higher oxidation products (up to and including carbon dioxide and water) are obtained.
Alternate routes to epoxides other than ethylene oxide include the non-catalytic oxidation of olefins with peroxides. Such processes are not only uneconomical, but are also hazardous due to the large quantities of peroxide required for the desired conversion.
It would, therefore, be desirable to be able to catalytically oxidize olefins having longer chain lengths than ethylene to produce epoxides directly. Such processes would provide large quantities of highly reactive olefin derivatives which would find a wide range of uses, such as for example, as polymer cross-linking agents, as reactive chemical intermediates, as precursors for the production of organic solvents, and the like.